When building a budget system for yourself or someone else that either does not need a powerful CPU or is better served with a powerful GPU then AMD is really the manufacturer you should be looking to. The ASUS A88X-Pro, for ~$125, could serve as a solid backbone for your system with a pair of PCIe 16x 3.0 ports along with a single 4x, a pair of 1x and even two legacy PCI slots for your older hardware. The storage system can support six SATA 6Gbps ports and an additional pair of eSATA along with a half dozen USB 3.0 ports and an impressive 10 USB 2.0 ports. As the board is intended for use with an APU it sports D-Sub, HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI-D out but for gaming you are best served picking up a discrete GPU. [H]ard|OCP found overclocking to be a bit challenging as not upping the voltage enough sometimes caused drive corruption but for those willing to put in the effort a speed of 4.5GHz @ 1.575v is certainly achievable. See the full performance review right here.

"It’s important to take a step back once in awhile and remember that not everyone can afford huge multi-GPU rigs and eight core CPUs. If you are in the market for a shiny new APU, you won’t want to miss our coverage of the ASUS A88X-Pro. This new FM2+ socket motherboard may not be the answer for you, but it could surely be a solution."

Gigabyte's Z87X-UD7-TH goes all out in terms of expansion slots with 5 PCIe 3.0 16x capable of running 4 cards at 8x simultaneously, along with two PCIe 2.0 1x slots in case you need even more cards to be plugged in. The Intel DSL5520 adds support for Thunderbolt 2 and there are 10 SATA 6Gbps ports, 10 USB 3.0 ports and even 4 legacy USB ports which should be enough for just about any user. Peripheral support is not everything though, find out about overclocking and stability under load in [H]ard|OCP's full review.

"We’ve covered a lot of budget motherboards lately and shown that you can get quite a lot for your dollar. The GIGABYTE motherboard we are looking at today is not a budget motherboard. In fact it’s on the complete opposite of the spectrum, competing with ASUS’ WS offerings and MSI’s Big Bang XPower series."

Today, MSI unvieled their next generation Gaming Series boards to be released in the near future. The boards will ship with MSI's latest power technology, dubbed dragon power, with the following names:

Gaming 3

Gaming 5

Gaming 7

Watch MSI on Facebook and Twitter for more information concerning their next generation Gaming line of products.

Biostar has officially launched three new AM1 platform motherboards that support AMD's latest Kabini-based desktop SoC. The new Biostar hardware falls under the new AM1M series and includes the micro ATX AM1m-HP board and two mini ITX boards: the AM1MH and AM1ML.

All three boards feature a FS1B SoC socket, two DDR3 DIMM slots, two SATA III 6Gbps ports, one PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot (running at x4 speeds), one PCI-E 2.0 x1 slot, Gigabit Ethernet, and 5.1 channel audio. The micro ATX AM1M-HP adds a legacy PCI slot to the mix. In an interesting twist, Biostar has oriented the memory horizontally above the FS1B socket rather than vertically and to the right of the socket.

Rear I/O on the AM1M-HP and AM1MH boards includes:

2 x PS/2

1 x HDMI

1 x VGA

2 x USB 3.0

2 x USB 2.0

1 x RJ45 (GbE)

3 x analog audio

The other mini ITX board (the AM1ML) has the same rear IO configuration minus the HDMI video output.

Biostar has not released pricing or availability information, but the boards should ship sometime in mid-April.

ASRock has joined the AM1 Platform fray with three of its own FS1B socketed motherboards: the AM1B-M, AM1B-ITX, and AM1H-ITX. The new motherboards come in Mini ITX and Micro ATX form factors that support all of Kabini’s I/O options including USB 3.0, SATA III, and PCI-E 2.0 connections.

The two mini ITX motherboards (the AM1B-ITX and AM1H-ITX) feature a FS1B SoC socket, two DDR3 DIMM slots, four SATA III 6Gbps ports, and a single PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot running at PCI-E 2.0 x4. ASRock is using two SATA III ports from the Kabini SoC and two SATA III ports from an ASMedia ASM1061 chipset. Both boards utilize the Realtek RTL8111GR NIC to provide gigabit Ethernet.

The AM1H-ITX board builds upon the features of the AM1B-ITX by adding a mini PCI-E connector. While the AM1B-ITX uses a 5.1 channel Realtek ALC662 chipset, the AM1H-ITX uses a 7.1 channel ALC892 chipset that supports both analog and optical S/PDIF outputs.

Additionally, the three boards have internal headers for extra USB ports and TPM security chips (the exact configuration of which depends on the specific board). The table below breaks down the basic differences between the boards.

ASRock AM1B-M

ASRock AM1B-ITX

ASRock AM1H-ITX

Memory

2 x DDR3 (16GB @ 1600MHz)

2 x DDR3 (16GB @ 1600MHz)

2 x DDR3 (16GB @ 1600MHz)

Expansion Slots

1 x PCI-E 2.0 x16 (@ x 4)

1 x PC-E 2.0 x1 (@ x 1)

1 x PCI-E 2.0 x16 (@ x 4)

1 x PCI-E 2.0 x16

1 x mPCI-E

Storage

2 x SATA III

2 x SATA III from Kabini SoC

2 x SATA III from ASMedia ASM1061

2 x SATA III from Kabini SoC

2 x SATA III from ASMedia ASM1061

Networking

Realtek RTL8111GR

Audio

Realtek ALC662

Realtek ALC662

Realtek ALC892

Rear IO

1 x PS/2

1 x VGA

4 x USB 2.0

2 x USB 3.0

1 x RJ45

3 x analog audio

1 x PS/2

1 x Parallel

1 x VGA

1 x DVI

1 x HDMI

2 x USB 2.0

2 x USB 3.0

1 x RJ45

3 x analog audio

1 x PS/2

1 x VGA

1 x HDMI

1 x DVI

1 x DisplayPort

2 x USB 2.0

3 x USB 3.0

1 x RJ45

1 x Optical S/PDIF

5 x analog audio

As with the other AMD hardware partners, ASRock has not released pricing or availability information. You can expect the micro ATX to be the cheapest of the bunch, with the two mini ITX boards commanding a slight premium for their reduced size and bolstered I/O options. The boards with four SATA III ports would make for great home server options by not requiring a PCI-E card to connect more than two SATA drives. The boards will support Athlon and Sempron branded AMD Kabini SoCs, and the combination of a board and SoC will cost approximately $60 according to AMD.

While the AM1 Platform is restricted to single channel memory (a Kabini memory controller limitation) versus Bay Trail's dual channel memory support, the AM1 Platform offers SATA 6Gbps and a GCN-based graphics part. Bay Trail may have a leg up in memory bandwidth and TDPs, socketed Kabini offers more storage bandwidth and graphics performance. I'm interested to see how the two platform stack up, and what the new boards are able to do.

AMD has just released Kabini as a socketed SoC with the AM1 platform. Not far behind is a few motherboards... because who wants a socketed APU without a socket? Chumps, that's who. Since no-one wants to be a chump, ASUS is getting ready to release two options in April. They are designed for low-power desktops and home theatre PCs.

The two boards are named the AM1M-A (Micro ATX) and the AM1I-A (Mini ITX). Otherwise, the two boards are very similar, but not identical. For instance, the Micro ATX version has two extra USB 3.0 ports while the Mini ITX has an extra COM header. The Micro ATX also has VD... by that, I mean a Realtek ALC887-VD sound card, where the Mini ITX has the ALC887 sound card without the suffix (I do not think there is a difference). The Micro ATX board also has a PCIe x16 slot (although it is electrically PCIe x4) to connect a larger-socketed add-in board (AIB) to it. As far as I can tell, they are basically the same, though.

Both motherboards will be available in April, but we do not yet have pricing information.

MSI recently introduced its first motherboard based around AMD’s new AM1 platfrom called the AM1I. The new board uses the mini ITX form factor while supporting a Kabini SoC and all of its IO options including SATA III, USB 3, Gigabit Ethernet, and triple display outputs.

The AM1 Platform uses the FS1B socket and a new cooler mounting system (though the boards spotted at CES used a traditional FM2/AM3 HSF mount). So far, it appears the only heatsinks available will be those bundled with Kabini chips in retail boxes.

The rear I/O panel of the AM1I includes:

2 x PS/2

3 x Video outputs

1 x HDMI

1 x DVI

1 x VGA

2 x USB 3.0

2 x USB 2.0

1 x RJ45 (GbE)

3 x analog audio outputs

MSI has not released exact pricing or availability, but expect the board to arrive sometime in mid-April for well under $40 (AMD has stated that the AM1 platform (FS1B motherboard plus a Kabini SoC) will cost around $60). Note that AM1 platform boards are extremely low cost because the IO is contained within the Kabini chip and not by on-motherboard chipsets.

Asus has launched a new motherboard that comes equipped with Intel’s latest Bay Trail processor. The new Asus J1800I-C is a mini ITX motherboard with a passively-cooled (soldered on) Intel Celeron J1800I prcoessor.

In addition to the included Bay Trail processor, the Asus J1800I-C motherboard has two DDR3L SODIMM slots (8GB 1333MHz max), two SATA II 3Gbps ports, a PCI-E x1 slot, and a single Mini PCI-E connector. The Celeron J1800I is a 10W TDP chip with two cores clocked at 2.41 GHz base and 2.58 GHz boost paired with an Intel HD Graphics GPU and 1MB CPU cache.

External I/O on the J1800I-C includes:

1 x PS/2

4 x USB 2.0

1 x USB 3.0

1 x COM

1 x Gigabit Ethernet (Realtek RTL8111G NIC)

3 x Audio

2 x Video outputs

1 x HDMI

1 x VGA

Pricing and availability have not yet been announced, but the board and CPU combo should retail for around $65 USD. This system could be used as a development board for mobile Bay Trail systems or a low cost driver of digital signage and kiosks. It could also make for a low power desktop if the pricing works out right compared to other SFF systems.

MSI has launched three new low cost FM2+ motherboards based around AMD's budget A58 chipset. The new boards include an ATX form factor MSI A58-G41 PC Mate and two micro ATX boards: the A58M-E35 and the A58M-E33. The boards are compatible with AMD's Richland, Trinity, and Kaveri APUs and support PCI-E 3.0. The cost savings come from using the A58 chipset which drops support for SATA III 6Gpbs and USB 3.0. The boards further have smaller heatsinks and fewer overclocking features. Despite the restrictions, the new MSI A58 FM2+ motherboards still incorporate MSI's OC Genie 4, Click BIOS 4, and Command Center technologies along with the company's Military Class 4 hardware components.

The MSI A58-G41 PC Mate is an ATX form factor board with an FM2+ CPU socket, two DDR3 DIMM slots, six SATA II 3Gbps ports, two PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, two PCI-E 3.0 x1 slots, and three legacy PCI expansion slots. Rear IO on this board includes two PS/2 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, a single Gigabit LAN port, three analog audio jacks, and three video outputs (HDMI, VGA, and DVI).

The Micro ATX A58M-E35 also has an FM2+ socket, two DDR3 DIMM slots, and six SATA II ports, but the expansion slot layout is scaled down. There is a single PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, one PCI-E 3.0 x1 slot, and one PCI slot. Rear IO on this board is identical to the A58-G41 board above (six USB 2.0, two PS/2, one GbE port, three audio, and three video outputs).

Finally, MSI's lowest-end A58M-E33 is a Micro ATX board similar in layout to the A58-E35, but with fewer port options. The expansion slot and memory slot configuration stays the same as the E35, but there are two fewer SATA II ports (four total) and two fewer USB 2.0 ports on the rear IO panel. Speaking of I/O, the board is similar to the E35 except that it lacks a DVI video output and two USB 2.0 ports.

MSI has not yet released exact pricing, but expect these boards to be well under $100, and the two micro ATX variants to be closer to the $50 mark based on prices of the higher-end A78 and A88 chipset-based motherboards. All three will be available for purchase later this year.

ASRock has picked up some impressive branding recently but the question of performance remains. They have been in the motherboard business for a while but have always been considered a bargain brand by most enthusiasts. [H]ard|OCP reviewed their flagship Z87 board recently to see if perhaps it is time to reconsider that impression. With three PCIe 3.0 16x slots and four PCIe 2.0 1x slots it does seem a high end motherboard and the inclusion of an onboard KillerNIC may also attract some attention. If this board really wants to attract attention it is the overclocking and stability which really matter and seeing as how it finished the review wearing a gold medal you can get a rough idea of how that testing went. Read the full review to see ASRock's impressive Killer Fatal1ty board in action.

"If you’re a long time reader of HardOCP then you probably know we are not huge fans of ASRock as a brand overall. Recently we purchased a new motherboard to spend some time with the ASRock Z87 KILLER FATAL1TY, and as a result our opinions are changing. Is that change for the better or for worse?"

MSI's Z87I GAMING AC is a mini-ITX board suitable for a small mobile gaming machine thanks to a 16x PCIe 3.0 port and both a KillerNIC for wired connectivity and dual band WiFi thanks to the onboard Intel 7260 chip. Also worth noting is the PS/2 port, aka the gaming port, which has been modified to accept a polling rate of 1000Hz for either a mouse or keyboard. [H]ard|OCP had some small difficulty with the extra drivers for the KillerNIC and Command Centre but as they are optional that did not concern them overly; especially once they got around to overclocking with this board. Check out the full review here.

"With gigantic towers going the way of the dinosaur and power coming in smaller and smaller configurations mini-ITX gaming oriented motherboards are more attractive than ever before. We put the Z87I GAMING AC to the test and find out if good things come in small packages or big headaches do. "

MSI is preparing to release a new Mini ITX motherboard that comes with a pre-installed Intel bay Trail-D processor. The new motherboard is the MSI J1800I and will be available for around $100 USD.

The Mini ITX form factor board features two DDR3 1333MHz SO-DIMM slots, two SATA III 6Gbps ports, and a single PCI-E x1 expansion slot. The aspect that sets this mini ITX board apart is the inclusion of a dual core Intel Celeron J1800 processor clocked at 2.4GHz. This CPU is a Bay Trail-D based on the Silvermont (Atom) micro-architecture. The chip has a 10W TDP and is passively cooled by a bundled aluminum heatsink.

IO options on the MSI J1800I motherboard include:

2 x PS/2

1 x VGA

1 x HDMI

1 x DVI

1 x USB 3.0

2 x USB 2.0

1 x GbE

3 x Audio

The board could make for a small home server or media box in the living room. The Bay Trail-D processor carries Intel's "Celeron" branding, but is is effectively an OoOE Atom chip. The motherboard+CPU combo should retail for just under $100 and be available soon. More information can be found on this MSI product page.

City of Industry, California, January 14th, 2014 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced official support for next generation AMD A-Series APUs based on the highly anticipated ‘Kaveri’ architecture. GIGABYTE ‘Kaveri’ support includes current AMD A88X and A55 (rev3.0) platform motherboards plus forthcoming A78 platform motherboards.

“By enabling support on current GIGABYTE AMD motherboards for these new AMD A-Series APUs, GIGABYTE ensures our customers are able to take advantage of a whole new approach to PC architecture design,” commented Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business Unit. “Combining the highest level of quality design with the most advanced set of features, GIGABYTE FM2+ motherboards offer the best user experience for these new A-Series APUs.”

“These FM2+ Series motherboards from GIGABYTE are the ultimate showcase for our new A-Series APUs,” said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. “In collaboration with GIGABYTE, AMD is proud to enable a truly optimized user experience in terms of raw computer performance while creating an industry-leading visual and audio experience with the latest generation of our APUs.”

GIGABYTE FM2+ Series Motherboards
GIGABYTE FM2+ Series motherboards showcase a number of features and technologies that separate them from the competition, including GIGABYTE AMP-UP Audio which includes an upgradable OP Amp, studio-grade Nichicon capacitors and Gain Boost switches. True Digital Power Delivery is combined with Triple Display Support including AMD Dual Graphics and AMD Eyefinity Technology support. GIGABYTE FM2+ series motherboards also provide native 4K resolution support via Display port and HDMI ports.

GIGABYTE FM2+ Series motherboards also integrate a range of features designed to ensure the long term stability and longevity of your PC. GIGABYTE DualBIOS ensures users are protected from BIOS failure, while an exclusive 2x Copper PCB design optimizes heat dissipation from the critical power delivery areas of the motherboard. One-Fuse-per-Port ensures each USB port has its own dedicated power fuse that prevents unwanted USB port failure.

AMD Kaveri Platform Highlights
The latest AMD A10-7850K and A10-7700K APUs integrate an enhanced CPU core based on the ‘Steamroller’ architecture with a new and updated Radeon Graphics core. Supporting native 8 GT/s PCI Express gen 3.0 and DX11.1 graphics, these new AMD A-Series APUs also offer native support for 4K resolution displays on HDMI and DisplayPort.

Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Maintained by the HSA Foundation, HSA is a system architecture that allows accelerators such as the graphics processor (GPU) to operate at the same processing level as the system's CPU, providing up to 50 per cent more GPU performance and up to 20 per cent more x86 instructions executed per cycle compared to previous implementations. The new AMD A10 series APUs are the first desktop PC processors to implement the performance advantages of HSA.

AMD TrueAudio Technology
The latest AMD A-Series APUs are also the first equipped with AMD TrueAudio Technology a new programmable audio pipeline that fundamentally redefines how digital audio is processed. By allowing the graphics cores to handle sound processing for spatialization, reverb, limiters and simultaneous voice processing, game developers have greater artistic freedom than ever before, allowing for a vastly more realistic and compelling audio experience.

Intel, with the Haswell architecture, eliminated much of the voltage regulation hardware by integrating it on the chip. This move was to improve power consumption without really affecting performance. The review goes through the unusual design of the EVGA board's power delivery. It is based on a 6-phase system, which is low, but still performed. In fact, he was again capable of reaching 4.8 GHz on his i7-4770K.

His major concern was with its price.At $220, it pushes up against a different class of motherboards such as the Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H (with more features) although it is still competitive even then. Check out his review if you want more information or just want a reprieve from the Vegas lights.

If you like the size of the smaller Gabecubes but want to build it yourself then you need a powerful mATX board. The aptly named MSI Z87M GAMING is a good choice with an impressive amount of slots, a pair of 16x PCIe 3.0 and a pair of 1x PCIe 2.0 as well. It also has 4 DIMM slots and six SATA 6Gbps ports which is an impressive array for such a small form factor and that doesn't even count the variety of input and output ports on the back. [H]ard|OCP were of two minds when it came to this board; the first reviewer encountered numerous issues installing the OS and drivers while Kyle found his to work perfectly out of box. This board has a lot of potential but you might want to wait for a BIOS update in the hopes that you too will have a smooth setup.

"We take a look at another offering in MSI’s "GAMING" series. This time the M-ATX form factor Z87M GAMING caught our eye. Is this a case of good things come in small packages? Based on our experiences with the rest of the series, this is one you won’t want to miss if you’re looking for an M-ATX based motherboard."

The ASUS ROG Front Base Dual-Bay Gaming Panel is a multi-bay command center housing system ports and a 4 inch integrated display for all your gaming and system needs in an easy to access location.

Courtesy of ASUS

As part of the ASUS ROG product line, the ROG Front Base Dual-Bay Gaming Panel integrates seamlessly with any of the ASUS Z87-based ROG Maximum VI motherboard offerings in addition to the Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard. The command panel includes support for sound configuration in conjunction with the ROG SupremeFX sound technology, as well as fan and overclocking configuration.

One of our first meetings at CES 2014 was with MSI. Below we have a video of the company's latest iterations on the AMD-family of motherboards including a Gaming Series mATX offering, a mini-ITX FM2+ board (perfect for Kaveri's release) as well as the only socketed AMD Kabini platform we have seen!

Gigabyte will be hosting the 2014 CES Extreme Overclocking Event in Las Vegas next week. The event will see overclocking talent such as Hicookie and Dinos22 (and other overclockers from around the world) attempt to break world overclocking records on the company's Z87X-OC motherboards The event is sponsored by Gigabyte, Intel, G.Skill, and Enermax who will respectively provide Haswell Core i7 processors, DDR3 memory modules, and power supplies.

If you are headed to CES or live in the area, the event will be held on January 6th from 2pm to 7pm at the Caesar's Palace Convention Center in the Octavius Ballroom (rooms five and six). The address is as follows:

Caesar’s Palace Convention Center

Octavius Ballroom 5 & 6

3570 Las Vegas Boulevard

Las Vegas, NV 89109

Attendees can expect to see overclocking competitions, attempts at world records, and a large showcase of Gigabyte products which will be on display. Food and refreshments will be available as well.

As mentioned, in addition to overclocking, Gigabyte will be showing off its latest motherboards and compact BRIX computers. Motherboards include the Z87X-OC, Z87X-UD7-TH, G1.Sniper, and Mini ITX F2A88XN-WiFi. On the mini PC front, Gigabyte is showing off the BRIX Pro (Intel i7 4770R with Iris Pro Graphics 5200) and BRIX Projector (75 lumen LED backlit projector and stereo speakers) machines.

According to the review, the new Gigabyte board can get within 100 MHz (around 4.5 GHz) of Morry using just its default "Extreme" setting. With advanced settings, Carl Nelson was able to push it to almost 4.8 GHz on an air cooler from Noctua. This was apparently the highest he has ever seen this CPU reach and maintain stability at.

MSI is calling these products, "Mini, but Mighty". These components are designed for the mini-ITX form factor which is smaller than 7 inches in length and width. Its size makes it very useful for home theater PCs (HTPCs) and other places where discretion is valuable. You also want these machines to be quiet, which MSI claims this product series is.

The name is also written in full uppercase so you imagine yourself yelling every time you read it.

The MSI Z87I GAMING AC Motherboard comes with an Intel 802.11ac (hence, "GAMING AC", I assume) wireless adapter. If you are using a wired connection, it comes with a Killer E2205 Ethernet adapter from Qualcomm's BigFoot Networks (even small PCs can be BigFoot). Also included is an HDMI 1.4 output capable of 4K video (HDMI 1.4 is limited to 30Hz output at 2160p).

Good features to have, especially for an HTPC build.

The other launch is the GTX 760 GAMING ITX video card. This card is a miniature GeForce 760 designed to fit in mini-ITX cases. If your box is a Home Theater PC, expect it to run just about any game at 1080p.